AMC Santa Monica 7
1310 3rd Street,
Santa Monica,
CA
90401
1310 3rd Street,
Santa Monica,
CA
90401
9 people
favorited this theater
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Please update, total seats 683, theatre has recliners
March 16th, 1990 grand opening ad in photo section.
Wine/beer bar added, box office now inside. New vending area with Coca-Cola Freestyle touch screen machines and popcorn butter area. All seven theaters now reopened with recliners.
Correction ?is AMC is still renovating this movie theater
There seems to be more renovating going on. I walked by today and there appears work is being done inside, and the only have 3 screens in operation.
AMC is currently renovating this place after hours.
I believe the La Jolla (San Diego), Chicago (opening later this year) and Virginia (opening in 2015) ArcLights are built from the ground up.
I think they just need to change the seats to recliners like they did with the Fallbrook location. That alone turned Fallbrook 7 into a destination theater for the West Valley. Every time I go there it is so crowded, you have to get your seats at least a day early for popular films. Not every tourist will want to pay $16 for a matinee.
Will this be Arclight’s first built from the ground up theater since the first one in Hollywood?? I think it will be. I wonder if they will still leave the same footage as the screen height between the front row of seats and the screen as they have in Hollywood?
I would assume this will be the last year the Broadway 4 Theatres will be in business. A dine in Theatre could be the only way AMC7 would stay open. Arclight SM would be the promenent theatre in SM and would really eat away at the competition.
AMC had better turn this place into another Dine-In. It’s the only way the theatre will compete against ArcLight. And Laemmle.
I recieved this e-mail this morning.
As a valued ArcLight Member, you are among the first to hear the exciting news we just announced. ArcLight Santa Monica at the Santa Monica Place will be our newest LA-based ArcLight Cinemas and is slated to open in the spring of 2015.
I worked here from 1993 to 1996. Had a great time. Loved working the AFM festivals.
Editorial on page 4:
http://www.smdp.com/pdf/041910.pdf
Is AMC playing fair to get the rights to build a new theater?
Sadly I think it has something to do with antiquated laws/regulations concerning parking:seat ratios. Back in the days of singles and twins it was fairly predictable to say a city needs X spaces to accomodate Y seats. Now this predictability is gone since theatres have learned to minimize downtime and ensure a constant steady stream of customers. It’s just my guess but I think the city is probably bound to operate under the outdated regulations and the theatres take advantage of that.
At least I hope so because if politicians can’t understand that twice as many choices might draw twice as many customers then we truly do elect some strange individuals.
Brad — I don’t think they’ll keep the AMC7, since the whole rationale for this is that it can’t compete with “modern” multiplexes. And in the article, they address parking: the city is demoing the old bank at 5th and Arizona with the idea of putting a parking structure there. No idea what’s going to happen to the Criterion.
Chris — yes, this is what I thought. It originally sounded like they were going to expand the 7 somehow.
Scott — do you want to run for city counsel? We need you!
I love that city councils think that keeping the number of seats the same means the same amount of traffic… don’t they understand that half those seats are empty anyway? If they spread the same seats out over 14 screens there will be TWICE the traffic regardless.
I thought the plan was to remodel & resize the 7-Plex and keep it open in addition to the new build.
Does this mean they will keep the 7-Plex also? What about all the parking that will disappear once this spot is filled? What about the Criterion? This all sounds a bit too much and typical SM trying to be Elite instead of practical.
There’s an article in the Santa Monica Daily Press today about AMC’s plans:
“If all goes according to plan, in roughly three years Oscar winners will be lined up along a red carpet on Fourth Street
for a premiere of the next box office block-buster.”
This has me a bit confused. The article talks about the theater being built in the space that Parking Structure 3 presently occupies on Fourth St. I thought they were going to demo the AMC7 and build in its footprint. This development would be more or less behind the present location of the Criterion, and off the Promenade.
They talk about plans to build a facility where premieres will be held. Do the studios rent screens at multiplexes for premieres?
Also, there’s mention that City Hall wants to keep the number of theater seats roughly the same, “out of fear of drawing more traffic to the area,” but everything else they do seems designed to draw more traffic to the area.
http://www.smdp.com/pdf/041410.pdf
This would not be good news for whoever takes over the Criterion lease. AMC will have the stronghold of most of the films.
I was never a fan of AMC 7. Although I’ve been there a number of times for special screenings, I’ve never bought a ticket. It is sad however for SM to lose the street scape with the three theatres.
Sorry, 2167 is the number of added seats. 2100 is the number the AMC 7 supposedly has now.
Scott, AMC 7 presently has 2167 seats. The expansion plans, which apparently include parking structure 3, would double that. If the Broadway 4 closes, they lose 1049 seats.
Ken MC, Benetton took over Midnight Special’s place on the Promenade, and MS didn’t close — they moved over to 2nd Street. But it took them several months to reopen, and the financial strain wiped them out.
local news
Obstacles stand in way of new movie house
By Melody Hanataniwrite the author
September 11, 2009
DOWNTOWN â€" In a local market filled with outdated theaters that have long fallen behind the trends of stadium seating and state-of-the-art technology, cinema giant AMC is hoping to enliven the movie-going experience.
The only thing standing in the way is whether the company can guarantee city officials that its current movie house on the Third Street Promenade just off Broadway will be put out of commission once the replacement is constructed just a block north.
Concerned about the potential oversaturation of movie theaters in Downtown, the City Council on Tuesday asked its staff to confirm if AMC will promise that the Broadway 4 will not come back to life as a movie theater, and if so, allowing the negotiations for the development of a 12-screen cinema at 1320 Fourth St. to commence.
If the movie theater company is not able to guarantee the permanent shuttering of Broadway 4 from the local cinema market, the staff will then have to return to the council with a counterproposal from Pacific Theaters.
While the promenade has remained a vibrant shopping and dining destination on the Westside, its cinemas have been considered lacking, particularly compared to other theaters in the area that offer more screens, comfortable seating and improved technology.
Metropolitan Pacific Capital and AMC are proposing to develop a new theater at the current site of Parking Structure 3 that will include 2,167 seats. While a city staff report stated that the plan also includes remodeling the AMC 7 Plex at the 1300 block of the promenade and closing Broadway 4, a representative from AMC told the council that whether the space will continue as a theater will be up to the property owner.
“I can’t offer you any guarantees that someone won’t step in and try their hand at Broadway 4,” Christina Sternberg, who works on development with AMC, said. “Our interest in the property is a leasehold interest and outside of our lease term, we can’t control use of that asset.”
Andy Agle, the director of housing and economic development, said the two proposals from AMC and Pacific Theaters were essentially identical, except the latter offered about 10 percent more in land rent but was not able to make the assurances that an existing theater in the area would be taken offline.
“The other proposal acknowledged they could not be competitive because of that criteria,” Agle said.
The AMC’s proposal was expected to have a modest increase in the number of seats â€" adding 2,167 with the new theater but losing 1,049 seats from the closure of Broadway 4 and the reduction from remodeling the AMC 7 Plex.
Mayor Ken Genser suggested that the proposal from Pacific Theaters also be considered if the deciding factor in AMC’s offer â€" taking one cinema offline â€" can’t be assured.
“If we’re going to give exclusive rights of negotiation to one team and the sole basis for doing that is something they can’t guarantee, it seems to be a rather flimsy recommendation to me,” Genser said.
AMC seems to just let theatres get run down so they can tear them down and build another (and bigger) theatre in its place.